The sun shines differently in September. It shines for less, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun has already set on a few championships and it is setting on plenty of other series as well. But there is time left for many. They will get their day in due time.
At this moment, we will reflect on what has happened before looking ahead to another sunset.
IndyCar Tidbits
It is autumn. IndyCar is over and will not be back again until March, a few weeks before spring. We know Will Power won his second championship and became the all-time leader in pole positions, Scott Dixon surpassed Mario Andretti in victories, Marcus Ericsson won the Indianapolis 500, Christian Lundgaard was Rookie of the Year and Colton Herta didn't get a Super License.
We know that stuff. But what about the information you need to dig and dust for? The stuff you need to actually look for? The kind of stuff that isn't going to be mentioned on a race broadcast but is still fascinating nonetheless? What about that stuff? With the season behind us, it is time to look at the finer details from the 2022 IndyCar season.
The Champions' Numbers
Will Power's second championship came eight years after his first title. How many other drivers had eight years between championships?
Mario Andretti has the longest span between championships, 15 years between his third title in 1969 and his fourth in 1984. Al Unser went 13 years between his first and second in 1970 and 1983. A.J. Foyt had eight seasons between his fifth title in 1967 and his sixth in 1975. That is rare company for Power to join.
It is a little more stunning when you take into consideration the only other times drivers went at least five seasons between championships are Tony Bettenhausen's seven-season slump from 1951 to 1958, Bobby Unser's six-season slump from 1968 to 1974 and Bobby Rahal going five seasons between titles in 1987 and 1992.
That is only seven occasions in IndyCar history where a driver went five seasons between titles. That should make Simon Pagenaud a little nervous, as Pagenaud is now six seasons going on seven seasons from his lone title in 2016.
As for Power's specifics, his one victory was the fewest for a champion since Tony Stewart in the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season. Power is the first champion with fewer than two victories since Gil de Ferran in the 2001 CART season.
But it is important to compare those seasons. Stewart won once in a ten-race season. De Ferran won twice in a 20-race season. Stewart and de Ferran each won 10% of the races, not a great total, but still 10%. Power won one in 17 races, a winning percentage of 5.88%.
We all know the 1996 Indy Racing League season and its co-champions in Buzz Calkins and Scott Sharp, as the IRL's inaugural season was only three races consisting of Walt Disney World Speedway, Phoenix and the Indianapolis 500. Calkins won at Orlando, Sharp didn't win at all, but the IRL didn't have a tiebreaker, so both drivers were champions.
Power's winning percentage was the lowest for a champion since Sharp's 0% in 1996, but removing that season for a moment, Power was the first champion with a winning percentage below 10% since Al Unser's 7.142%. Unser also won the 1983 championship with a winning percentage of 7.692%. Unser's two championships, Sharp's co-championship and Power's season are the only times since the formation of CART in 1979 that a champion won less than 10% of the races.
However, Power was on the podium in 52.94% of the races, the highest podium percentage for a champion since Scott Dixon had nine podium finishes in 17 races over the 2018 season. No champion has finished on the podium in over 60% of the races since Dixon's 70.58% in the 2008 season, the first season after reunification.
The Locals
Eight American drivers were regulars this IndyCar season with a total of 13 Americans starting a race this season.
American drivers accounted for seven victories, five for Josef Newgarden with Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi splitting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course races. This is the fourth time in six seasons American drivers have won at least seven races and the sixth consecutive seasons with at least five American victories.
From 2008-2016, American drivers combined for five victories or more in a season only twice, five in 2012 and six in 2015.
This was the sixth time in eight seasons at least three different Americans won a race, but there have not been four different American drivers to win in a single season since the 2003 IRL season when five Americans won a race. Those Americans were Scott Sharp, Al Unser, Jr., Bryan Herta, Alex Barron and Sam Hornish, Jr.
How Good Was Team Penske?
Team Penske was really good this season. It won the championship with Will Power. It won nine races total, five at the hands of Newgarden, three courtesy of Scott McLaughlin's sensational sophomore season and Power won the Penske promoted race at Belle Isle just to boot.
The drivers went first, second, fourth in the championship. Not bad, but Team Penske did that in 2016 with Pagenaud, Power and Hélio Castroneves, so it is kind of old hat for the team and back in 1994, Team Penske went 1-2-3 with Al Unser, Jr. Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. In that case, 1-2-4 isn't that impressive.
The 2016 group won nine of 16 races, the same total as 2022, but 2022 had a lower winning percentage thanks to that extra race. The 1994 team won 12 of 16 races, a greater total and greater percentage. The 1994 team had 29 podium finishes, 2016 had 22 and 2022 had 22 as well. The 1994 team swept the podium five times, something the 2016 team and 2022 team didn't do. In 2016, Penske did have four 1-2 results, but the team only had two 1-2 finishes this past season. The 2016 team earns top honors in pole positions with 11 to 1994's ten and Penske only had nine pole positions in 2022.
Perhaps the greatest difference in these three Penske seasons is Team Penske won the 1994 Indianapolis 500. Team Penske did not win the 2016 nor 2022 Indianapolis 500s. Its best finisher in 2016 was Will Power in tenth. This season it was Newgarden in 13th. I think Roger Penske would take that into significant consideration if he were to weigh in on this debate.
Still good, but let's slow our roll on treating 2022 as Team Penske's greatest season ever.
But another way to take into consideration would be to look at the championship through another lens. If IndyCar had the 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system that Formula One used from the 1961 to 1991 seasons, entering the finale, Josef Newgarden would have had 51 points, Scott McLaughlin would have had 51 points and Will Power would have had 51 points.
We would have gone into the finale with all three Penske drivers tied on points and only the Penske drivers would have been alive for the championships. It would have been "may the best Penske driver win" for the title. The 2022 season might not have been the greatest collection of numbers for Team Penske, but in terms of total team control, 2022 has a case.
Dixon vs. Newgarden
It was a historic season for IndyCar. The most notable achievement was Scott Dixon surpassing Mario Andretti for second all-time in victories. Now there are only 14 victories between him and A.J. Foyt in the record book.
But there was another impressive milestone partially ignored this season. With five victories, most in the series, Josef Newgarden reached 25 career victories, the 17th driver to reach that milestone. Newgarden is only 31 years old and turns 32nd on December 22.
Newgarden has been around for a few minutes, but he has a lot of time left in his career. At the end of the 2022 season, Newgarden sits on 181 starts. With nearly half of Dixon's win total, how doesn't Newgarden's hit rate through 181 starts compare to Dixon?
|
Dixon |
Newgarden |
| Victories |
23 |
25 |
| Podiums |
62 |
47 |
| Top Fives |
85 |
70 |
| Top Tens |
127 |
112 |
| Pole Positions |
15 |
15 |
| Laps Led |
3,446 |
3,381 |
| Laps |
27,400 |
22,240 |
| Championships |
2 |
2 |
| Age at 181st Start |
31 years, 16 days |
31 years, 8 months, 20 days |
How about that? Pretty even, but Newgarden is ahead of victories at an identical part of their careers.
I think we need to consider the different quality of fields these two drivers competed against in their first 181 starts. Let's establish that Dixon's 181st start was the 2011 Mid-Ohio race. That is six races before Newgarden made his debut. Dixon ran during the split for the first seven seasons of his career. There was a point where Dixon was only competing against 17-19 other cars. The smallest field Newgarden has ever raced in during his IndyCar career is 21 car. We forget the first two seasons of the DW12 chassis had two-dozen cars at every race and the grid has grown back to that level and beyond in recent years.
The field size accounts for the disparity in podium finishes, top five finishes and top ten finishes. We also have to acknowledge Newgarden spent more time with smaller teams. He ran with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing/CFH Racing/Ed Carpenter Racing for the first five seasons of his career, his first 83 starts to be specific. Dixon spent the first 23 races with PacWest Racing and he has been with Chip Ganassi Racing ever since.
Both drivers have had their down periods in terms of equipment. Dixon was strapped with the beleaguered Panoz-Toyota combination for the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Newgarden started his career with Honda when Chevrolet came out like gangbusters at the start of the DW12-era. Newgarden has led 65 fewer laps than Dixon through 181 starts, but Newgarden has run 5,160 fewer laps. On percentages, Newgarden has led 15.202% of the laps he has completed to Dixon's 12.576%.
We must remember Dixon ran in the Indy Racing League and ran only ovals in 2003 and 2004, and the IRL was still a predominantly oval series through the 2010 season. Newgarden never had a season with 16 races all scheduled to be at least 200 laps in length.
It has been an honor to watch Scott Dixon race, but we are also witnessing something great with Newgarden and we have something to watch for over the next decade.
Rossi Retrospective
Laguna Seca marked the 114th and, for the moment, final time we will see Alexander Rossi drive for Andretti Autosport in IndyCar competition. A relationship formed at a crossroads, Rossi entered IndyCar after a sampling of Formula One with the Marussia organization and Andretti Autosport and Bryan Herta Autosport merged to keep an entrant on the grid.
Rossi started in a black-and-white livery only to pick up NAPA Auto Parts sponsorship for the Indianapolis 500 and Belle Isle in a short-term deal to cover the final three races that would be broadcasted on network television in the United States that season. Five hundred miles and an epic fuel conservation stint later, Rossi laid down the foundation for the next six years.
The NAPA colors are now familiar on the IndyCar grid and tied to Rossi. Rossi went from American Formula One hopeful who got there but circumstances meant he couldn't stay to IndyCar lightning rod, quickly becoming one of the most competitive drivers in the series. He pushed for the championship in 2018 and 2019, but slid the last three seasons leading to this exit and move to Arrow McLaren SP.
This is a big change for Rossi and the Andretti Autosport organization. Rossi was the top driver in the championship in five of his seven seasons and his worst championship position was 11th.
Since becoming Andretti Green Racing in the 2003 IRL season, Rossi has the fourth most starts with the team behind only Marco Andretti (250), Ryan Hunter-Reay (198) and Tony Kanaan (131). Rossi is tied with Dario Franchitti for third most victories in the organization on eight, behind only Hunter-Reay's 15 and Kanaan's 14. Rossi is third in podiums, his 28 only trailing Kanaan's 49 and Hunter-Reay's 42.
A championship is the only thing missing from Rossi's time with this group. Perhaps if the cautions had fallen differently at Portland or he avoided contact at the start of Sonoma this moment would be different for both driver and organization. Though the Astor Cup is missing from the collection, Rossi's time at Andretti Autosport will be remembered for the years to come.
17-For-17!
Speaking of Alexander Rossi,
back in June when we did a look at IndyCar tidbits halfway through the season I put on the radar the possibility of a driver finishing all 17 races in 17 different positions.
By golly, Rossi did it! Seventeen races, 17 different finishing positions.
20th, 27th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 19th, 23rd, 13th, 18th, 1st, 4th, 25th, 7th, 10th.
I can hardly believe it happen. Each time I look at the results I carefully read each one thinking there has to be a repeat in there, but none is there.
This nearly didn't happen. Entering the final race, Rossi had finished in each of the top five positions and in eight of the top ten spots. Sixth and tenth were the only two remaining. He also could have finished this off with a 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 24th or 26th to go 17-for-17.
Rossi qualified third, so not a promising start for this piece of history, but Rossi had a lot of bad luck this year and there were still four spots outside the top twenty in play. He moved up to second at the start, so that wasn't helping the cause and he remained in a unsatisfying position for the sake of this piece of trivia until lap 14 when he returned to the track in 14th after his first pit stop.
But after the first pit cycle Rossi settled around eighth and then he was driving forward. He got up to sixth for laps 23 and 24 before taking fifth. He dropped back to sixth just prior to this second pit stop. When the caution came out for Callum Ilott's stranded race car, Rossi was positioned in 12th, so that was good for us. He then dropped to 13th at the restart. That was bad. Late in his third stint, Rossi was climbing forward, 12th on lap 50, 11th on lap 52, ninth on lap 54, eighth on lap 58 and he stalled out there before the final round of pit stops began.
Once the field was done with pit stops Rossi was eighth on lap 73 with 22 laps to go. Rossi either needed to gain two positions or lose two positions. Either was fine with me. Rossi remained in eighth until lap 84 when he overtook Patricio O'Ward. He just needed one more spot, but on lap 92, Scott McLaughlin took seventh from Rossi. Two laps later, Rossi was dropped to tenth with Patricio O'Ward and Marcus Ericsson moving up the order.
At the checkered flag, Rossi was in tenth, 2.7 seconds behind Ericsson and 2.3 seconds ahead of Colton Herta.
What did Rossi achieve?
He is the first driver to finish every race in a different position since Eddie Cheever went 13-for-13 in the 2001 IRL season. Dating back to the 2021 season finale, Rossi has finished the last 18 races in 18 different positions. I don't have all the data, and this could be incorrect, but this has to be one of the longest stretches in IndyCar history without a driver repeating a finishing position. Cheever had a 15-race stretch when you take into consideration the 2000 season finale and 2002 season opener. Ed Jones had 15 different finishing positions in the first 15 races of his IndyCar career during the 2017 season.
This means absolutely nothing but is fascinating nonetheless.
Palou vs. The Field
Álex Palou thrashed the field at Laguna Seca. It was the beatdown of beatdowns to close out the 2022 season.
Palou was 30.3812 seconds clear of Newgarden at the finish line. How rare was such a large victory?
It was the largest margin of victory since Mark Dismore lapped the field in the 1999 Texas season finale for the Indy Racing League! This was only the 14th time in 251 races since reunification that a margin of victory was greater than ten seconds. It was only the fourth time in that span the margin of victory was greater than 20 seconds. Those races are below.
Mid-Ohio 2009 (29.78)
Kentucky 2010 (13.16)
Baltimore 2011 (10.21)
Belle Isle I 2013 (12.971)
Barber 2016 (13.748)
Watkins Glen 2016 (16.531)
St. Petersburg 2017 (10.351)
Belle Isle II 2018 (11.355)
Mid-Ohio 2018 (12.829)
Long Beach 2019 (20.236)
Road America 2019 (28.439)
GP of Indy 2020 (19.947)
Harvest GP I 2020 (14.294)
When was the last time a driver won by 30 seconds or more and didn't lap the field?
July 27, 1997! Alex Zanardi won the U.S. 500 by 31.737 seconds over Mark Blundell!
Palou was only 117 days old!
How many IndyCar races have taken place between that Zanardi victory and Palou's?
566!
Entering the 2022 season finale, the previous 14 races that saw a green flag finish had a combined margin of victory of 24.3056 seconds. The average margin of victory was 1.736. Palou dropped a massive outliers into the data set and skewed the results. With Palou's finish, the average margin of victory ballooned to 3.645 seconds.
There were only two other races this season with a margin of victory greater than the average, and those were the Iowa races when Newgarden won by 6.1784 seconds over Patricio O'Ward and then O'Ward won by 4.2476 seconds over Will Power.
Seven of 15 races that took the checkered flag under green flag conditions were decided by a second or less, including five road/street course events. Throw out the Laguna Seca race and the road/street courses had a lower average of finish than the ovals by nearly a second and a half! Minus Laguna Seca, the average was 1.33419 seconds for the road and street courses. For ovals it was 2.740925 seconds!
This is why the median is always important with a set of data, and the median margin of victory this season was 1.0027 seconds, telling a more accurate story of the 2022 season.
Most starts before first top ten finish
Not every record is one you want to have. Nobody really wants to own all the records. That means owning the bad ones as well. It is also highly unlikely a driver could possibly have the most race victories and also have taken the most starts to get a first career victory and then have the record for most starts between victories. You are talking about not winning for 130 races, then winning 68 times but somewhere in the middle of that streak going at least 125 starts without a victory. That career would need to be at least 322 races long, which would be the sixth most in IndyCar history, but all that is unlikely to happen in one career.
The point being is not every record is good and one of those less stellar records is on the verge of being broken.
Dalton Kellett ended the 2022 IndyCar season with 41 starts and no career top ten finishes. That isn't good. It is worse when put in context that the record for most career starts without a top ten finish is 43 starts at the hands of Milka Duno.
Yikes. Not something you want to break.
But it got me thinking? What is the most starts before a first career top ten finish? Kellett may not get a top ten result in his next three IndyCar starts, which would have him surpass Duno, but what if Kellett kept going and did get that first top ten finish? That record would return to Duno, but where would Kellett stand?
I did this research, going through over 1,200 drivers who had a top ten finish in the races recognized in IndyCar's record book to find the answer.
The truth is most drivers who get at least one top ten finish in their careers get a top ten finish on debut. It is a who's who of top ten debutants. All the greats had top ten finishes on debut.
George Snider, Affonso Giaffone, Stevie Reeves, Shinji Nakano, Casey Mears, Felipe Giaffone, Joël Camathias, Patrick Lemarié, Alex Figge.
The best of the best.
About 55.278% of drivers with a top ten finish in their IndyCar careers had their first occur in their first start.
But not everyone has a good first day. Sometimes they find their form on their second day.
About 74.77% of the drivers get their first top ten finish in one of their first two starts. Those drivers include some pretty decent talents.
Dick Simon, Roger Rager, Scott Atchison, Didier André, Hideki Noda, Enrique Bernoldi.
Lesser talent needs three races for that first career top ten finish. Some of these drivers you probably never heard of.
Johnny Rutherford, Jimmy Vasser, Hélio Castroneves, Sam Hornish, Jr., Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud, Marcus Ericsson, Álex Palou.
See. Nobodies. About 83.642% of top ten finishers get their first in one of their first three starts.
Out of 1,241 drivers with at least one top ten finish, only 102 drivers took more than five starts to get their first career top ten finish. Only 31 drivers took more than ten starts.
Where does Kellett find himself?
I have some good news for him, no matter what he will be in the record book.
It took Marco Greco 42 starts to get his first career top ten finish, the latest a driver has gotten a first career top ten finish, meaning even if Kellett finishes in the top ten of his next IndyCar start, Kellett will at least match Greco's record. Two starts or more and the record is his until someone else takes longer.
But to get a sense how rare it is here are the drivers that took more than 15 starts to get a top ten finish in their IndyCar careers.
Marco Greco - 42
A.J. Foyt IV - 32
Sébastien Saavedra - 26
Arnd Meier - 24
James Jakes - 23
Matheus Leist - 22
Alex Barron - 21
Dominic Dobson - 19
Tyce Carlson - 18
Parker Johnstone - 16
Dennis Vitolo - 16
Josef Newgarden - 16
That is the list. Only two of those 12 drivers went on to win an IndyCar race. Barron won twice. Newgarden had a bad rookie season, but that one bad season didn't derail what was a great talent.
The only other drivers to take more than ten starts for a first career victory who eventually won in IndyCar are Ed Carpenter (14 starts), Buddy Lazier (13), Mark Dismore (13) and Takuma Sato (11).
Expand that to the drivers didn't get a top ten finish in one of their first five starts and the winners are André Ribeiro (10), Bob Sweikert (9), Michel Jourdain, Jr. (8), Gil de Ferran (7), Mike Conway (7), Sam Hanks (6), Bill Vukovich (6), Al Keller (6), Lloyd Ruby (6), Dick Atkins (6), Héctor Rebaque (6) and Mario Domínguez (6).
That is 18 of 102 drivers. It is showing the first few races of a career are a good barometer for what a driver's career is going to look like.
I am not sure anyone had high expectations for Kellett, but he at least has a shot at history if he returns to the track in 2023.
100 laps led in a road/street course race
We touched upon Álex Palou's dominant victory at Laguna Seca, but time isn't the only way a driver can dominate. Laps led show how long someone was at the front. The more a driver can pile up the more dominant he looks.
With fewer laps on road courses, it is hard to stand out at times with laps led, but Scott McLaughlin lead 104 laps at Portland. Whoa! Most road and street course races aren't even 100 laps long. The century mark is a lot of laps to lead on most ovals. Only two of the last 12 Indianapolis 500s have seen a driver lead at least 100 laps and that is only half the race. McLaughlin led 104 of 110 laps, 94.54%.
That had me wondering, when was the last time a driver led 100 laps or more on a road/street course?
There aren't many opportunities where this could happen. St. Petersburg is the only other active road/street course event 100 laps or greater in distance. Most road/street courses are somewhere in the 70s and 80s. What is the answer?
A.J. Allmendinger at Portland on June 18, 2006.
Allmendinger led exactly 100 of 105 laps on his way to his first career victory. It was a 18-car field and it was also Allmendinger's first race with Forsythe Racing after he was fired from RuSport after three races. That day Justin Wilson was second and Sébastien Bourdais was third.
The only driver who was in that 2006 Portland race that was in McLaughlin's beatdown in 2022 was the driver who finished in last place over 16 years ago.
That driver?
William Steven Power!
For greater context, since 1946, there have only been 19 occasions of a driver leading 100 laps or more on a road/street course.
The first to do it was Dan Gurney at Riverside on December 1, 1968. Michael Andretti did it six times in his career, twice in 1990, twice in 1991 and twice in 1992.
Of those 19 occasions, 16 saw the driver leading 100 laps or more win the race.
The three blemishes?
Roberto Guerrero led 111 of 112 laps at the Tamiami Park race to close the 1986 season. Guerrero led every lap until his car ran out of fuel and Al Unser, Jr. overtook the Colombian for the victory. It is the only occasion in IndyCar history where a driver led every lap in a race but the final one.
The next time was two seasons later at the Meadowlands, where the race was 150 laps around a 1.217-mile course. Emerson Fittipaldi had led 107 of the first 110 laps before he had an accident from the top position in turn four. Al Unser, Jr. inherited the lead and led the next 27 laps before Mario Andretti took the top position. Andretti led 11 laps before his car broke down with two laps remaining, handing the lead and eventually victory back to Unser, Jr. Unser, Jr. was the only driver on the lead lap. Only ten of 25 starters took the checkered flag.
The final occasion was the 1996 Grand Prix of Long Beach. Gil de Ferran led 100 of the first 101 laps but a mechanical issue forced de Ferran to relinquish the lead four laps from the finish. Jimmy Vasser took the top spot and victory. De Ferran limped home in fifth position.
October Preview
The first day in October is Petit Le Mans, the 2022 IMSA season finale. A few championships will be decided. It will also be the final race weekend for the Daytona Prototype international class before the introduction of the LMDh specification, which will compete in the GTP class starting in 2023.
It is a two-horse, Acura race in Daytona Prototype international. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor lead the championship with 3,066 points, 19 points ahead of the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis.
The #10 Acura has won four times while the #60 Acura has only won the 24 Hours of Daytona, but it has five runner-up finishes this season. The #60 Acura also leads the Endurance Cup with 30 points, one point ahead of #10 Acura and two points ahead of the #5 Mustang Samplings Cadillac of Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Loïc Duval. Hélio Castroneves will join the #60 Acura for Petit Le Mans while Brendon Hartley joins the #10 Acura lineup after Will Stevens ran with the team at Daytona and Sebring.
Acura has not won Petit Le Mans. Cadillac has won three of the last four Petit Le Mans, and Mazda won last year with Oliver Jarvis as one of its drivers.
In LMP2, there are four possible champions. John Farano leads with 1,640 points and Farano will share the #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca-Gibson with Louis Delétraz and Rui Andrade. Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel are second, 33 points back and the most recent winners at Road America. Indy Lights race winner Christian Lundgaard will join Merriman and Dalziel in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca-Gibson.
Steven Thomas is 93 points behind Farano, and Thomas will drive the #11 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson with Josh Pierson and Tristan Nunez. Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman have an outside shot at the championship, finding themselves 108 points off the top spot, and they will have Sebastián Montoya as their third driver in the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca-Gibson.
The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker lead the Endurance Cup standings with 35 points. With the withdrawal of the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca-Gibson, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will clinch the Endurance Cup simply by starting Petit Le Mans. The #52 Oreca won Sebring and Watkins Glen and was fourth at Daytona.
CORE Autosport leads the LMP3 championship with the #54 Ligier-Nissan of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett on 1,716 points and they will have 2022 GT America champion George Kurtz join the team for Petit Le Mans. Gar Robinson is 83 points back and he will share the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier-Nissan with Felipe Fraga and Kay van Berlo. Garett Grist and Ari Balogh are 119 points back in the #30 JR III Racing Ligier-Nissan. Road to Indy driver Nolan Siegel will be Grist and Balogh's third driver this weekend.
The #74 Ligier leads the Endurance Cup on 34 points, three points ahead of the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier-Nissan of João Barbosa and Malthe Jakobsen. Grist is third on 27 points with Bennett, Braun and Kurtz on 26 points.
All Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet have to do is start Petit Le Mans in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche to clinch the GT Daytona Pro championship. The Australian-French duo has won five times this season, and Felipe Nasr is back for the finale. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor has the #3 Corvette second in the champions on 2,908 points, 16 points ahead of Ben Barnicoat, who will be in the #14 Vasser Sullian Lexus with Jack Hawksworth and Kyle Kirkwood. Nicky Catsburg rounds out the #3 Corvette driver lineup.
García and Taylor lead the GTD Pro Endurance Cup standings on 27 points, two ahead of Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra, who are back in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari and they will have James Calado in the car as well. Campbell and Jaminet are third in Endurance Cup, three points off the Corvette. Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas are four points off in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. BMW has slim hopes of the Endurance Cup with Connor De Phillippi and John Edwards six points back in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry.
Six teams could win the GT Daytona championship this weekend. Roman De Angelis leads on 2,630 points, 45 points ahead of Stevan McAleer. De Angelis will drive the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin with Maxime Martin and Ian James while McAleer will be in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG with Mike Skeen and Dirk Müller. Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen are 57 points back in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche with Zacharie Robichon rounding out their lineup for the weekend.
After winning the last two races, Phillip Ellis and Russell Ward are now in the championship conversation and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG is 140 points behind De Angelis with Marvin Dienst in the #57 Mercedes-AMG this weekend. Turner Motorsport has a shot but a 162-point deficit to overcome for Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley in the #96 BMW along with Michale Dinan. Robert Megennis and Jeff Westphal are 171 points back and they will have Corey Lewis as their third driver in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini.
The GTD Endurance Cup has the #70 inception Racing McLaren leading with Brendan Iribe and Jordan Pepper on 31 points, five points ahead of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander, Simon Mann and Luís Pérez Companc. De Angelis and James are on 24 points as well as Hardwick, Heylen and Robichon.
The 25th Petit Le Mans is scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday October 1.
Other events of note in October
The World Drivers' Championship could be sealed up in Singapore, Japan, the United States or Mexico.
There will be the Bathurst 1000...
... and the Indianapolis 8 Hours.
By the end of the month, we will know the four drivers eligible for the NASCAR Cup championship in the finale.
MotoGP rounds out its Asia-Pacific swing.
European Le Mans Series closes its season in Portimão.
Super Formula ends at Suzuka.
